Wine and Canvas

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Between this fun event that I did with two of my friends last week and date night on Friday/Joe's race on Saturday morning I feel that I have taken more "me" time than I have since Skyler was born. It has been fun to get out more and I always feel like a better mom when I take some time to do things I enjoy outside of parenting. It also helps when most of the time spent away is when Skyler is sleeping - I don't miss out on too much :)

Last week on Monday I went with two of my best friends to a wine and canvas event. Have you ever done one of these? You basically pay for the blank canvas, paint, and a teacher to walk you through the steps and in a few hours you have a finished canvas painting, all ready to hang up (or gift to someone). The wine part of wine and canvas costs extra, but our event was held at Hell's Kitchen in Minneapolis, so part of the fun was getting dinner and drinks before the painting began, and then moseying down the hall with our drinks in hand when the event began.

I met these two lovely ladies when I was a kid. Both were in my mom's in-home daycare, and we have been friends ever since! Here is a picture of us from last Monday, and one from about twenty years earlier! Check out my 101 Dalmatians jammies - this picture is so 90's :)

Both of my friends had done Wine and Canvas before, and this was my first time. I loved the painting we did, but it was one of the more complicated paintings they do and it was definitely a challenge - the shading in the background, the bench, the thickness of the streetlights, and don't even get us started on the shadows - oh my :) These paintings were quite the emotional roller coaster (so much stress!!), but we had such a great time. I would have painted anything - I just loved the time spent with these two! I didn't take any of these pictures, they are all from my friends phones or the photos taken by the Wine and Canvas staff. Isn't it crazy how big our whole group was? It was a packed room.

It was a great evening and I know Joe and Skyler had a lot of fun too! The next morning Skyler kept asking me for "bues" because him and daddy spent a lot of time listening to blues music :)

If there is a Wine and Canvas in your area, or another similar painting party company (I've also heard of Margarita and Canvas, or Cookies and Canvas for kids!, I would highly recommend it! I didn't love my painting as I was doing it, but I am happy to have the final product at home (Skyler likes it too!) and it is a great reminder of a fun night with friends!

On Family Weekends and Slime

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It has been a full and fun weekend with daddy home and the welcome, almost-springlike weather allowing us to be outside every day! We have been spending every minute possible walking and playing at our favorite outdoor places. 

On Friday we had a walk planned with a friend, but the sky was looking iffy so we went to the mall nearby to do some laps. The little friends had fun running around the mall which was empty since the stores has not yet opened - perfect for toddlers! In the afternoon, Skyler and I headed to my dad and step mom's (with a seemingly endless amount of vehicle toys to play with and an awesome bearded dragon to observe). My hubby picked me up from their house when he got off work and we had a date night, leaving Skyler on his first overnight (with us staying at home)!

Minneapolis/St. Paul locals or anyone checking out the area, if you have never been to The Happy Gnome you have got to try it!! We had the best meal (maybe ever) and after dinner were very pleasantly surprised by a coffee shop called Nina's Coffee Cafe that we just ended up walking by. We camped out there are awhile, trying to find live music or a movie but did not find anything of interest so ended up home before 11:00 - we must be getting old ;)

I was coveting the owl paintings leading up the staircase to the tiny upstairs nook we took over!

Joe signed up for a 5K near our house Saturday morning, so we were up early to get him checked in, then we walked down the street to our favorite bakery and took our goodies down the street the other way to one of our favorite coffee shops :) We spent an hour or so there before he had his race and then I got to hang out and read my book while he ran (and not even one chapter into my book I saw him cross the finish line). It was so strange waking up and leaving the house within fifteen minutes, not changing Skyler's diaper and clothes, or having to feed the little one before rushing out the door (always late, I turned into a perpetually late person when I became a mama!)

 In the mason jar is this chia pudding topped with strawberries - my new favorite breakfast (I vary the toppings)!

I was so excited to pick up our baby boy! It is always so wonderful to see him even after a short time away. We went right home for him to nap and then had fun with a new activity in the afternoon. We made some sparkly green slime!

We used this recipe from Blog Me Mom for one ingredient slime.

At first, Skyler just wanted to observe, and I could tell he didn't want to touch the slime, so I grabbed a rubber scraper for him to use and then he was a very happy boy! He spent at least twenty minutes stirring his slime, and never ended up touching it with his hands. 

 Skyler kept trying to find different ways to stir the slime and loved to "spin" the scraper to play (far right)

Checking it out up close!

Skyler asked to play with the play dough for awhile, so that is what we did! He proudly said to me "press!" as he filled his clover, and he got creative with the beads daddy got at the race, using them to make imprints on his play dough. After the play dough, he also wanted to play with our color toss game and vehicle sensory bin (a very blog-activity centered day)! I love when he asks to play with the materials I make for him :)

 Wearing his necklace and then using it as a "belt!!" :)

We attempted our first lake walk this morning at Lake Harriet, my very favorite place to go for walks! It was pretty chilly, but we saw a ton of dogs and many close airplanes, and Skyler told me the color of every car driving by - with all of the exciting things to see he was a pretty happy guy considering how cold we were by the end!

We warmed up with coffee and snacks at one of our favorite bakeries, Rustica. Joe will probably not love that I am putting up these pictures, but I thought it was so hilarious how similar my two guys looked while sharing a pastry :)

We do not normally go out to eat and get coffee every day, but with our first weekend as a family in so long, it was definitely a great way to celebrate! I hope you had a great weekend and have a wonderful week ahead!